[Blarg]

Thanks! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] It's just freaky fast how quickly the hands can develop. I'm pretty stunned at the progress too, but from what people on the gripper boards say, it's not all that unusual to see quick giant leaps. Hands just have incredible powers of adaptation.

On the wrist curls and such, there's an armwrestling craze hitting the grip boards lately, and wrist curls are vital for that sport, so they're getting talked up more, but people generally say that they don't translate at all into gripper work.

People are pushing general foundation laying and rounded hand strength, though, so pretty much any and every hand or forearm exercise winds up getting some sort of at least passing endorsement. And laying a foundation is always a good idea.

But still, it also seems generally agreed that most hand and forearm strength feats and practice create very limited carryover to other ones. People who get into bending for a while, for instance, tend to lose strength on the grippers after a while. And vice-versa.

From what I can tell, it does seem that if there is carryover, it's mostly from pinching to gripping. Pinching builds up the thumb pad a lot, they say, and a big thumb pad is also helpful in gripping. But since pinching takes such a strong thumb and you can still have a comparatively weak thumb even if you're good on grippers, being great on the grippers can still leave you surprisingly ineffectual at pinch work. People concentrating on grip work tend to do special thumb work outside of their gripper work to help balance their hand strength out.

And of course there is extensor work, too.

Hey, don't forget to do alternating hot and cold soaks for your hands and forearms. They do an amazing amount to speed up recovery. That's a key to fast progress.